


Ango's Field Trip

by kdm13



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angus accidentally yeets himself to another plane, Crossover between Balance and Amnesty, Not using archive warnings because I don't know if any apply yet but I'll update that if any do, Takes place after episode 19 of Amnesty, tags added as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-09-24 23:51:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17110472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kdm13/pseuds/kdm13
Summary: Angus McDonald is a very good detective. The best! But can he figure out how to get back home when a spell gone wrong sends him further away than he's ever been before?





	1. In Which a Spell Goes Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> Blame the TAZ fic writer's Discord for this. Someone was talking about Angus being friends with some of the Amnesty characters (won't say who because spoilers) and I ended up getting the urge to write. 
> 
> This has not been betaed at all by the way have fun!

It was just supposed to be a simple Teleport. Maybe he wasn't ready for it yet, but he wanted to try! It would be useful to get out of sticky situations! And he was just trying to get to the other end of the room. Nothing big. He didn't need someone holding his hand for this. ~~He didn't want Taako to know he was trying to skip ahead.~~

Angus McDonald did not end up on the other side of the room.

Angus McDonald ended up in a very different place indeed.

“H-hello, sir.” Just because he was in a strange place, facing what looked like a large goat turned bipedal and given hands, didn't mean he shouldn't be polite.

Being polite shouldn't result in him getting something thrown over his head and being lifted off the ground, but it wasn't the first time it had happened either. He should really consider increasing his dexterity. Or maybe not speaking up when it wasn't clear if someone had noticed him yet.

“Sir! I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own!” Angus squirmed a bit; he didn't want to fall, but he needed to get his wand hand free. It probably wasn't a good idea to try to cast the spell that had gotten him here, but he knew plenty of others.

“I can't let you run off until you tell me how you got here. I don't know how you made it through the gate, much less how you got so far past the guards, but you're lucky you were by a shirt stall. Put that on, I'll take it back later. Just stop moving so much, I don't want to hurt you.”

Angus couldn't move properly at first, but when he stopped struggling, he was lifted to sit on large shoulders, and he lifted the fabric off his head. It _was_ a shirt. Far too big, and a mishmash of colors that only Taako could pull off, but it wasn't as if he had to wear it for long. He slipped it on over his head and grabbed the horns in front of him for stability. “Is this okay, sir?”

“It's Vincent, and it's fine so long as you don't get too grabby.” Angus looked around. They were leaving an open air market. The people around were mostly a mix of animal people and what looked like humans. If humans glowed slightly and had sharp teeth and orange eyes. There were even a couple people who looked like they might be ghosts. He wondered if his grandbirdy knew about this place.

“Okay, sir.” Vincent sighed. “I'm Angus McDonald, world's greatest detective! I got here by practicing my detective skills.” There was a lot that Angus didn't know here, and he had no idea how far he had traveled, so he was playing it safe and not telling Vincent everything until he at least knew what the gate was. He wasn't even lying!

“A detective, huh? I suppose you just eavesdropped on the wrong conversation. You should be careful what you investigate; you don't want to get in over your head.”

“But if I don't do it, who will? I'm very smart, sir. It's not bragging if it's the truth. I know there's danger, but that's why I keep practicing! So I can make sure to stick around to figure out more clues!”

“One truth prevails, huh. Well, don't forget to ask for help. You're too small to shrink any further.” Vincent stopped walking in front of a strange arrangement of stones and waved the guards aside. “This is your stop. I'm gonna have to tell Momma to be more careful. Before you go though, you need to promise me to not tell anyone about what you saw tonight. Strangers don't do well here.”

“I wasn't going to tell anyone about what happened tonight anyway.” It's why he had been practicing when he should be sleeping in the first place.

After he was set down, Angus turned to look back up at Vincent. “One more question before I go: how did you know I don't belong here so fast? Lots of people here look like normal humans at first glance.” Himself included. But everyone he had noticed on their way through was distinctly not human in at least one way.

“I know everyone in Sylvain, Angus.” He sounded sad about that. “Now go back home, I don't want to see you again.”

“I care about your safety too, sir.” And with that, Angus handed over the shirt and stepped through the gate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written any of the Amnesty characters before so I hope I wrote Vincent okay. I figured he'd be more gentle with a child. Especially while not actively on duty.


	2. In Which Duck Finds a Child

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the nice comments! Got me to start writing this chapter right away.
> 
> Happy Candlenights!

Duck had taken to periodically checking the gate. Just in case. It wasn't hard to work the route into his patrol. And so long as he didn't tell anyone about the gate, no one would see what he was checking.

It was just a new path through the forest. Nothing major. He didn't even need to lie about it so long as he made sure no one asked.

It was fine.

What was not fine was the footprints he found in the snow. They hadn't been to Sylvain since before the last snowfall. And they were going _away_ from the gate. “Aw hell.” Someone had come through. The tracks _clearly_ stopped at the gate.

Well, he might as well see who it was. The footsteps seemed awful small, and it wasn't exactly a warm night. He could go without his jacket for a while. A kid couldn't. He didn't know how well a sylph kid could handle the cold, but he wasn't going to risk it. What he _did_ know is that whoever it was wouldn't be allowed back, and he might as well help get whoever it was situated. Was there a proper procedure for this? Didn't much matter now so long as they got to the lodge safe.

He hurried through the snow as much as he could. It took a few minutes, but he managed to spot a small figure moving among the trees ahead of him. “Hey kid! What're you doing alone out here?”

The figure stilled and turned towards him. “Hello, sir! I'm trying to find a good place to sleep for the night.”

“Like heeee-ck you are.” Shit. The kid wasn't shivering. He didn't seem lethargic, but that still wasn't a good sign in this weather. He took off his jacket as he walked the rest of the way to the kid and held it out with one hand while he dug through his supplies with the other. “Name’s Duck Newton; it's a nickname. I'm a forest ranger in these parts. And this ain't a good spot for camping. Besides, I don't see a tent on you. Put this on and I'll get you someplace warm.”

“But don't you need it sir?”

“Not as much as you, kid. Besides, I have a blanket and still have the body heat to warm it up. What's your name?” Best to keep him talking as much as he could.

“Angus McDonald.” Hey look! He put on the jacket! Duck tied the blanket around himself as best he could. “Where are you going to take me, sir?”

“It's warm and safe and has a phone. Now come on, it's too cold out to be standing around and I'm not gonna let you walk.” With that as a warning, he crouched down and scooped Angus up. “It's good to share body heat, and you can make sure I don't lose this nice blanket while I walk.” Duck figured he should share his reasoning since the kid had seemed worried about him. He didn't want to waste time arguing about whether or not Angus could walk on his own. He just got his arms between Angus and the jacket and started walking back towards the gate. He made sure to mess up Angus's earlier tracks as much as he could along the way.

Damn, Angus was cold. How long had he been out here?

“Keep talking to me. Doesn't matter what about. Just gotta make sure you're doing all right.”

He could feel Angus shifting in his grip, and then the kid started on a tangent that Duck only half listened to. So long as he didn't start drifting off or anything he'd be fine.

They made it back to Duck’s truck and then Amnesty Lodge without incident. He kept the heat low, just enough to keep off the chill; he didn't want to warm Angus up too fast or mess with the controls while he was driving. Especially not so soon after what had happened to Danimal the week before. Supernatural bad luck or not, Duck wasn't taking any risks. He let Angus listen to the radio while Duck focused on the road.

Instead of taking the main entrance, Duck led Angus along the side of the building. “Now normally, I think it'd be okay to just walk right in, but right now there's a visitor that doesn't know about where you came from and I don't want any questions from him. So you're just gonna have to trust that I'm bringing you into the cellar for perfectly safe reasons. Now, it's gonna look bad, I know. We had a rough weekend and haven't had time to clean up yet. Christmas and all. But I promise we're on the level.” Duck opened the cellar door and started down before beckoning Angus to follow. He seemed to debate his options while fidgeting a bit with his sleeves before he started down the stairs.

“I see what you mean, sir. What happened?”

Duck dragged a hand down his face and kicked some trash out of the way. “It's a long story. Or not, really, but I gotta get you warmed up and get back to work, so I don't have time to tell you right now.”

Duck took off the blanket and held it out. Angus took it. “I'm gonna need my jacket back, but let's get you set up in the infirmary first. It's probably the cleanest room in the place right now.”

It took a few minutes, but Duck managed to get Angus out of the clothes of his that had gotten wet from the snow and wrap him up with the space blanket and one that was lying around. He explained his reasoning for everything as he went, and told Angus some things to avoid doing as well. He put his jacket back on and straightened it. “Stay here, okay? I don't want you getting hurt. I'll be right back with someone else. I'd say to help yourself to what's in the kitchen, but-” he chuckled nervously- “I think you saw why that's not an option right now. Best to just stay in this room for the moment. I will be-” Duck started backing up with one hand extended in a stop gesture- ”Right. Back.”

Duck raced back out of the cellar and went through the front entrance. He looked around to try and find someone who could help, and his eyes landed on Aubrey and Dani playing with Aubrey's rabbit.

“Aubrey!” Duck called out as quietly as he could while he raced over to them. “I need your help downstairs. I found a kid by the gate and didn't know if Agent Stern was around.” Luckily, he didn't seem to be, but best to play it safe. “Dani, you probably know standard procedure for this sort of thing better than I do, could you get that ball rolling? I don't know how long he was outside for, but I don't wanna leave him alone down there and Aubrey is good at making heat.”

He watched anxiously as Dani patted Aubrey's hand and the latter stood up after giving one last stroke to the rabbit’s head. “Take care of Doctor Harris Bonkers for me.” Dani smiled and nodded.”Okay, Duck, let's goooooo!”

As they walked back to the cellar, Duck gave her some tips on dealing with hypothermia. “Now I know you're gonna wanna stick a fire right by him, but you gotta warm him slow or you'll shock his system. I got him out of anything wet and wrapped him up already, so he should be good so long as you can keep him warm.” A thought occurred to him. “Damn. I should have told Dani to get him something warm to drink. Make sure you get him something if you can. I've gotta get back to my, well, it's not exactly paying right now but someone's gotta do it. I don't want anyone to miss me and send out a rescue. Just remember: no direct heat, no rubbing, get him to drink something warm if you can.” He paused.”You got all that?”

Aubrey nodded and opened the cellar door. “No fire. No friction. Yes fluids. Got it.”

“That's fluids on the inside. Don't go dunking him in the hot springs quite yet. I left him in the infirmary.

“Angus! This is Aubrey, she's real nice and will keep you company while stuff gets sorted upstairs!” Duck called through the open door. Then lowered his voice again. “Stay out of trouble, Aubrey.”

“You too, Duck.” And she went down the stairs and closed the door behind her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha yeah I saw in a tumblr post that forest Rangers don't get paid during a government shutdown. And the latest arc of Amnesty started on the morning of the 21st, which was Friday, and ended the night of the 23rd, which was Sunday. So I'm placing this fic right after Christmas and if the shutdown ends before then, then whatever. I doubt this fic will stay canon compliant for long anyway, since I didn't feel like waiting until January to start.


	3. In Which Aubrey Plays Hide and Seek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got a beta for this fic! It's Windywords123! So light edits in previous chapters.

Aubrey headed down the stairs. She twisted her hands together to keep herself from summoning a flame too soon. She didn't want to scare the kid. Duck had said Angus, right? Maybe he was used to magic but it was still fire and Duck said to not heat Angus up too fast. She had to be careful.

Aubrey walked towards the infirmary and knocked on the door frame. “Hey An-” the words died in her throat. There wasn't anything new in there except some wet pants and a pair of shoes with socks sticking out. Unless Angus could turn invisible, he wasn't where Duck left him. “Shit.”

Okay. Okay okay okay. She could handle this. It was just hide and seek with a kid from another world who might be dying. No pressure. She had already helped saved the world three times now! She could find one kid.

“One! Two! Three! Fourfivesixseveneightnineten! ReadyornothereIcome!” Aubrey started racing through the rooms as fast as she could to make sure he wasn't out in the open, first. She even glanced at the view screen to the safe room to make sure he hadn't somehow gotten in there, but thankfully he hadn't. She went and looked through the other doors before whatever was actually in that room decided to talk to her again. No thanks. Not without someone else there.

Okay. The kid wasn't visible from any of the doorways, but that didn't mean he wasn't in any of the rooms. There were places to hide, and she had no idea how small he was or what he looked like at all. Duck was in too much of a hurry to get back to being a ranger to remember to tell her details like that.

She checked outside the cellar doors just in case. There were no small footprints leading away from the doors. Good. He was still inside.

She didn't know why someone would go outside in the winter with hypothermia and not take their shoes with, but she had never been that cold before. Maybe it sounded like a good idea when you were that cold. She didn't know. But it was good to know that that wasn't the case and that he was still inside.

Somewhere.

Aubrey kept her ears peeled for the sound of movement as she started to go through the rooms one by one.

It wasn't even like they were that big; he should be easy to find.

But he wasn't.

Maybe it was time to cheat a little.

Aubrey stood by the entrance to her little library and opened her third eye. And suddenly there was a little boy leaning against the bookshelf, wrapped in blankets and looking intently at something on his wrist. “Huh.” Angus? looked up at her when she spoke up. When their eyes made contact, his widened and then moved to look at the rest of her. When Aubrey next looked for it, the thing Angus had been studying was hidden under his sleeve. He must not have wanted anyone to see what he was doing.

He waved.

She waved back.

“Hello, ma'am. I'm sorry for-”

“Aubrey! Or The Lady Flame!” Aubrey snapped her fingers and a flame appeared in her right hand and lingered. “Ma'am makes me feel old.” She scrunched up her face to emphasize her point.

“Okay, Lady Flame.”

 _“The_ Lady Flame! It's my stage name!”

Angus smiled and Aubrey took that as her cue to sit next to him. “Oh! Like Jess the Beheader!”

The fire in Aubrey's hand flared and she shook it to dismiss the flame. Using fire magic this close to the books Janelle had given her had not been a good idea, but she got caught up in the moment. “What the fuuuu-dge have you been watching?”

“Fantasy professional wrestling!”

Aubrey didn't know much about sports, but she wasn't completely clueless either. “Like fantasy football?”

“Exactly! But with more story and it's far more entertaining. Besides, I've seen worse solving mysteries. And Jess is really nice. She invited us to her match once because we cleared her name of suspicion of murder.”

Aubrey's head was reeling. ”But you're ten!”

“I'm eleven. And I don't see what age has to do with it.”

Aubrey would have said something in response but then she remembered she had a job to do. “Oh shoot! I'm supposed to be keeping you warm! Are you okay with sharing body heat? Duck said not to try to warm you up too fast. But maybe I could warm up your clothes? Do you think that would work? Or maybe I could warm up a blanket?”

“I would very much like my clothes back. And you can swear in front of me; I don't mind.”

Aubrey stood up and put a hand to her chest. “And risk forgetting myself onstage? I like being able to do family friendly shows. I'll be right back; try not to pull another disappearing act. That's _my_ job.” She winked with her right eye over her sunglasses and went back to his clothes. “I would like these to be dry now.” Aubrey wasn't about to risk using fire to dry them; it was better to ask. There was less chance of burn marks that way.

A warm breeze swirled around the clothes and lifted them gently off the ground. Aubrey waited a second and then grabbed the pants. When she found them perfectly dry, she grinned and grabbed the rest. _Success!_

She placed the clothes in a pile by Angus (who looked much more solid and had probably stopped being invisible) and then stood in the doorway with her back turned so that he could get dressed but also have a hard time getting away from her. He had already proven to be willing to hide from her, and she didn’t want to have to go looking again.

“Okay, I’m done!” It hadn’t taken him long. It wasn’t quite quickchange levels of fast, but he hadn’t taken his time, either. “Thank you for drying these for me. How did you get them so warm?”

Aubrey walked back over to him and sat down. She patted the floor next to her and Angus got settled. “Well, three thousand years ago, on the banks of the Nile, the priests used to believe that if someone believed hard enough and pushed their will to the brink they could conjure, from nothing, flame itself. I am that person. With the strength of my will alone, not only can I conjure flame from nothing, but I can manipulate that flame to become whatever I desire.” She conjured a small flame again and passed it from finger to finger as she talked. “So basically, I’m a human space heater.”

Angus looked up at her, the light from her tiny flame reflected off his glasses, and turned one of his hands palm up. “You mean like this?” Aubrey’s jaw dropped when fire appeared in Angus’s hand. She hadn’t noticed any of the normal tells, but then she hadn’t been looking for them.

Besides, Angus was from Sylvain.

“Why didn’t you do that before? You wouldn’t have been so cold. Wait! Put that away! Duck said not to stick a fire right by you, so you should wait.” Aubrey reached for the fire but it was gone again before she could do anything.

“I don’t notice cold as much as most people, The Lady Flame. And I was looking for someplace where it was safe to make a fire. Even in the winter, trees can still catch fire and spread. I didn’t want to burn the forest down.” Then he muttered something that didn’t sound like English.

“What was that? I didn’t catch that last bit.”

“You weren’t supposed to.” Aubrey tried to be upset, but couldn’t due to the disarming smile on Angus’s face. He just had that sort of face you couldn’t hate.

“All right, fine. Be that way.” Aubrey stuck out her tongue because she was an adult and no one could tell her to stop. “I guess I’ll just do magic tricks where you can’t see.”

“You can’t bribe me with magic tricks, I already have a magic teacher.”

Darn. “But do you know magic tricks liiiiiiiiike-” Aubrey scooched closer to the middle of the room without getting up, and started her routine- “this?” She couldn’t do her full routine without standing, but she also couldn’t do it without Doctor Harris Bonkers, so it was fine. She still managed to do a variety of flashy tricks without using any actual magic. She could add some if she wanted to, but it felt wrong to mix the two. Stage magic was for the stage and magic magic was for helping people in a more direct sense.

Angus didn’t feign disinterest for long; soon enough, Aubrey had his rapt attention. She finished off with a fancy flourish and a grin, and was met with applause.

“You did all that with your hands?”

“That was radical, Aubrey!”

Aubrey nodded to Angus and then looked towards the door. “When’d you get here, Jake?”

Jake shrugged. “A couple minutes ago. I didn’t want to interrupt.” He waved at Angus. “Hey, you must be the new kid. I’m Jake Coolice. It’s nice to meet you.”

Angus stood up and stuck his hand out from under the blankets. “Angus McDonald.”

Jake shook Angus's hand. “I made up a room for you if you wanna come see. It’s warmer upstairs by the fire. Oh! That reminds me! Aubrey, a box came for you about ten minutes ago. Dani took it to your room.”

A box? Her shipment! Aubrey gasped in excitement. “My supplies!” She had been going through more than usual lately. Her real magic seemed to use up almost as much of her supplies as her stage magic, and she had to practice it more. “I need to go take care of that before anyone tries to see what’s inside! I’ll be in my room if you need me, just knock first!”

Aubrey raced out of the cellar and back into the main part of the lodge to go put her supplies away where no one would glean her secrets.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think? I thrive on comments.


End file.
